To propose a special issue, send a prospectus and a list of
potential contributors to the Editor. Decisions regarding special issues
are made by the Editor in consultation with the
Board of the International Research Committee on Disasters.

Editorial Policies and Author Guidelines

Submission of a manuscript to the International
Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters
constitutes a commitment to publish
and signifies that the paper is not
currently under review at any other journal.

Manuscripts are reviewed blind. All identifying material should be removed from the text, abstract, tables, and footnotes. A title page should be attached that contains the title, authorship, and institutional affiliation (including full mailing address and telephone number), and a running head for the article limited to 57 characters including the author/s last name. Any acknowledgements should appear at the bottom of this title page with an asterisk to the manuscript title.

Author/s Responsibilities

Please submit one electronic copy (preferably by email to: maureen.fordham@northumbria.ac.uk) and three paper copies of the
manuscript, including title page and abstract. Manuscripts are not returned, so each author should retain copies in his/her
files. Manuscripts must be written in English. Manuscripts must be typed, double spaced (including indented
material, footnotes, and references) on 8 1/2 by 11-inch white opaque paper. Margins must be a minimum of one inch.

Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, a wordprocessing document file must be submitted with the
file matching the final paper copy. This may be done either by epectronic mail (as an attachment) or be regular mail by
sending a diskette containing the final document file. Be sure to include a note indicating the file name and which program
was used to produce it. Acceptable word processing formats are Microsoft Word 2000 (or earlier), WordPerfect, and plain text
(ASCII). Word 2000 is the preferred format.

Tables, graphs, figures, and maps may be used in manuscripts. They should be carefully integrated into the text and
crucial to understanding the author's message. All should be prepared as separate pages, with an indicator in the text
regarding its location (e.g., Table 1 about here). Please prepare all tables, graphs, figures, and maps "camera-ready"
and submit only originals with a manuscript that has been accepted for publication. If an IBM-compatible computer was used to
create the graphic, you may also submit the file in addition to an original printout. Be sure to include a note indicating the
file name and which program was used to produce it. Acceptable graphics formats are EPS, TIF, PCX, GIF, and JPEG.

Manuscript Preparation

The format used for
manuscripts conforms to the style of the American Sociological Association
(e.g., for the American Sociological Review). Manuscripts not
prepared
in this format will be returned for revision without editorial review.

1. Sub-headings should be used to aid readability in accordance with the following format.

A. First order headings: centered, upper/lower case, and bold.

B. Second order headings: flush with the left margin, upper/lower case, and bold.

C. Third order headings: bold, upper/lower case, indented as a paragraph followed by a period, and continue the paragraph.

2. Substantive footnotes, as distinct from references, are discouraged. If essential, however, they should be prepared as end notes and identified as Notes.

3. The author is responsible for ensuring that items appearing in the References are cross-checked with the text citation for publication dates and spelling. Any item which is inconsistent will be deleted from both the text and the References.

A. All source references are indicated in the text by noting only author/s last name, date of publication, and page numbers, if appropriate. A separate alphabetical listing of all citations should be typed in a section entitled References. Examples follow for both text entries and the reference listing.

B. The text:

(1) If author's name is in the text, follow it with year in parentheses. For example, "... Kreps (1985) ..."

(2) If author's name is not in the text, insert, in parentheses, the last name and year. For example, "... (Trost 1978) ..."

(4) List both last names for dual authors. For citations
with three authors, list all three authors by last name in
the first reference [e.g., &quot: ...(Smith, Jones, and Smith
1998)...&quot], then in all subsequent references list only
the last name of the first author followed by "et al."
without italics [e.g., "... (Smith et al. 1998) ..."].
For citations with four or more three authors, list only the first
author by last name followed by "et al." (without italics) in
ALL references, including the first.

(1) The References section includes all text-cited works compiled in one alphabetized list. Formats for books, periodicals, edited collections, and newspaper references are shown below in items (7), (8), (9), and (10).

(2) List all items alphabetically by author and, within author, by year of publication (latest reference first).

(3) The use of "et al." is not acceptable in the reference listing; list the names of all authors using full first names except when they were not included in the original publication.

(4) If there is more than one reference to the same author in the same year, distinguish them by adding the letters a, b, etc., to the year.

(5) Use "forthcoming" to cite material accepted for publication, include name of journal or publisher; otherwise use "unpublished."

(6) Titles of books and journals should appear in italics when possible. Use underlining if italics are not available. The first letter of each word in an article or book title should be capitalized, with the exception of prepositions and articles.

Wettenhall, R.L. 1980. "The Response of Government to Disasters: A
Study of Fragmentation." Pp. 261-295 in Response to Disaster, edited by John Oliver. Townsville, Queensland, Australia: Centre for Disaster Studies, James Cook University of North Queensland.

(10) Newspaper format:

Diamond, Stuart. 1985. "The Disaster in Bhopal: Lessons for the Future." New York Times (3 February): A7.